PolyGod: The early-alpha Doom on drugs

Gameplay

The quick movement and the constant shower of bullets make for an awesome fast-paced experience. You start in a garden without much context. Then, after leaving the garden, you’re thrown into a randomly-generated level. You learn pretty quickly that you need to shoot and destroy everything. There are quite a few unique enemy types, such as flying orbs that shoot on all sides and little blue guys that create huge explosions. When you destroy an enemy, you collect their soul. You use souls to buy upgrades for yourself or your weapon at different randomly-generated altars around the level. Upgrades can up your damage and fire rate, while others can increase your movement or healing rate. There are too many to cover in one article, but they all have pros and cons to them. Some damage boosts decrease movement speed, some accuracy boosts reduce your fire rate, and so on.

Your goal is to get to the end of the level, but I would definitely recommend getting all of the upgrades you can before you go. Leaving a level throws you straight into an amazing boss fight. The game calls the bosses “Holy Champions”, and each is unique and huge. Encountering one for the first time is genuinely breathtaking. Figuring out their movements, attacks, and weaknesses is a really cool part of the game, and it really brings me back to RPG’s from the days of old where a boss fight doesn’t have an obvious way of beating it. These battles exercise the lost art of subtlety in gameplay. You have to figure out the solution yourself without having a huge glowing marker over where to shoot or an NPC shouting at you what to do.

Story

There isn’t much you can get from the game, but PolyGod’s Steam page and press kit from its website tell an intriguing story. You are called “Faceless the Blessed”, and you are an assassin. The Holy Champions work for the Gods, and your job is to destroy all of them in an event called “The Trial of the Gods”. So far, the story really isn’t really a crucial part of this game’s appeal. The main focus is the awesome visuals and the incredible gameplay, so it’s fine.

Conclusion

I would highly recommend trying this demo. It’s free, so what have you got to lose? PolyGod provides fast-paced and frantic gunfights, colorful environments, and solid platforming. When you experience your first battle against a Holy Champion, you’ll discover how exhilarating a boss fight can really be.

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